They don't make it clear in the TV show or the comics, but in episode 5 (Wildfire), Jenner says it is "Day 194 since wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease abruptly went global". This would be the fourth day since Rick woke up. This means the disease has been spreading for over 6 months and has been an international pandemic for 2 months.

When he wakes up, Rick seems to have several weeks of beard stubble on his face, and the flowers on the nightstand have been dead for at least a couple of weeks. When he meets Morgan and they go to the police station, Morgan says the gas lines have been shut down for "maybe a month". Since the gas lines are in the same town as the hospital, we can assume the hospital shut down around the same time as the gas. In episode 6 (TS-19), Jenner says he has "been in the dark [meaning he hasn't had communications with anyone else] for almost a month". It is hard to believe the CDC would collapse as quickly as a small-town hospital in Georgia, but that seems to be the case.

The problem is that none of this tells us anything about how long Rick was comatose, only how long he was comatose AFTER the hospital was overrun - about a month. The stubble on his face proves that, but the hospital (or Lori) could have been shaving him while he was in the coma right up until the hospital went down.

In the first episode (Days Gone Bye), just before Rick gets shot, he and Shane are chatting about women and relationships. That would lead me to believe the disease is not in the USA yet, as they would be preoccupied with handling the outbreak (they ARE cops, and cops would be the first responders in a zombie crisis), or at least DISCUSSING it.

So if "wildfire" began outside the US, and only got to the US when it 'abruptly went global', Rick was probably in the coma for at least 2 months - at least one month while the hospital was still operational, and about one month after it was abandoned. If 'wildfire' began in the US, however, Rick has probably been in the coma for about 6 months - 5 months before the hospital shut down, and one month after.

In any case, we can be sure that he wasn't in the coma for more than a month or so after the hospital was abandoned. Although he WAS hooked up to an IV fluid drip, those bags only last a few hours to a day at most before going dry. Tube feeding would have stopped immediately upon the nurses leaving the hospital.

It is true that a person can live without food for over 2 months (though they usually lose consciousness after a month or so), and possibly longer if they are in a coma; however, we die very quickly without water. Even in relatively cool weather, going as little as 3 days without fluids can be fatal, and very few people have survived more than a couple of weeks without drinking. I've never heard of anyone living for a month without water, but it might be possible. Anything more than a few weeks to a month and Rick would never have woken up.

The only other possibility is that Rick was shot AFTER the disease became a global problem, and yet he somehow heard nothing about the outbreak or the zombies until he woke up and found Morgan.

 

likely 2 months in the hospital as it seems, but not sure really, although, when i first watch the pilot episode, the part when rick wakes up and the hospital is gone to s.. and the door there dont open dead inside, and when he goes out to the streets and find the whole thing like that zombie lady's torso crawling there, that series beggining was awesome, it actually scared the cr.ap out of me, very impressive, i mean just imagine waking up in an isolated hospital hallway like rick did, not understanding what was going on, and find yourself only a door away from those monsters and a chain that maybe wont last forever, men, that was creepy awesome

 

I would say that he was in a coma for about 2 months...

After the hospital was abandoned, do you think that anyone has tried to come inside? I mean, someone had to come in to grab some supplies (it's a hospital!) when he was in a coma. If that happened, it's strange and obvious that no one even tried to check his room (because we see the bed in the same spot since Shane had put it).

 

The reason it spread SO quick was because of the 'death = zombie, even without a bite', people would've been dying from natural causes in there thousands and thousands all over the U.S, and coming back, spreading it quicker.

 

Before leaving the hospital for good, Shane put a bed in front of Rick's door to prevent the walkers from getting to him. Someone please splain to lil ole me how that worked?

 

I kinda thought you are so close to death in a coma, that you dont smell/sound/feel alive to the zombies.

That is why they never get people in comas

But the thing about it that bothers me, is exactly how did his IV last for weeks or months?

Dont they only last a day? It seems like he would have died of dehydration around day 4

 

Man you guys all think he was in there for ages I would only a week or two

 

Rick was in a coma for at least 60 days, he wakes up on day 60 of the outbreak, and we don't know how much longer he was there pre-ZA. Not sure how he survived so long w/o dehydration/infection.

 

This definitely bugs me the most when it comes to explaining the series. It has to be at least a month in a coma with out food and water and I don't think even rick could survive that.

Its possable someone who worked in the hospital came back every couple days to look after the comatose patients, maybe replacing the gurney after checking on Rick? The zombie allows people to survive longer in a near death state?

It would be great to see an explanation for it.

 

The hospital wasn't necessarily abandoned at the start of the outbreak though. Perhaps it didn't collapse until day 57 of the outbreak :shrug:

 

Wouldn't that mean that the camp Shane and Dale and everyone set up outside the city was only there for a couple of days before Rick found it? Also, Glenn said he would make trips into Atlanta for supplies himself, and the one time he brought people, everything went wrong. That kind of lead me to believe the camp had been around a little longer than that. I also figured the relationship between Shane and Lori lasted a little longer than 4-5 days.

 

That's true. Didn't think about that.

 

The records are in the hospital staff documents. morgan will retrieve them, try to ask for his cell in real life

 

63 days eversince the virus went worldwide

 

That's not true. Rick woke up the same day at Morgan's. When Rick comes downstairs after waking up there, Morgan references the shot he fired that day (to the walker on the street) had brought more walkers out than usual. He makes sure we know he means THAT walker by saying if he hadn't shot, the walker would have eaten Rick. So Rick is only out for an hour or two at most at Morgan's.